Great show last night! It felt like a slab of the old BBC London show again, with radio ping pong, an engaging guest, and some unexpected records. And that was very brave and unfashionable to play a track from Carla Bruni!

For some reason, I was actually expecting the show to open up with Blue Sky Boys, I just guessed the wrong track. But that was pretty well all that I guessed. And I've now become a Son Of Dave convert. I wasn't surprised at his choice of Little Walter's 'Teenage Beat' - it was just the record that sprang to my mind when I heard him do his thing. Great stuff.

Very nice show with SOD proving an excellent ping-pong guest: the sync between Gabi Lunca and Big Maybelle was perfect radio. I got in from the Barbican and switched on obviously just after u had played Carla - again, synchronicity of sorts!

I am seeking the name of the artist that Charlie Gillet interviewed on the Saturday evenings show (26th April). He also played live in the studio. In the interview he sounded British and sung with an unusual voice.

i would like to purchase hi album but cant remember his name etc as i was almost asleep at the time.

many thanks,

Jason

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2. Peter Sampson, Manchester

Hi Charlie,

just a quick not to say great show last night - good to see that you've managed to get a "tradititional" CG show on R3, complete with Radio Ping-Pong. The session with The Son Of Dave was very entertaining.

My gem from last night's show was the Israeli singer Mor Kabasi - though the Carla Bruni track was good too - and a great sign-off with Momo Wandel Soumah.

Looking forward greatly to next week's show - and long may World On 3 continue with you getting at least 1/3 of the slots - it's really great to have you back on national radio (where you belong).

Kind regards,

Peter.

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3

Martin Goldman

Your absence has been palpable, as one tunes across the airwaves and searches the internet for consistently interesting sources of music radio. Not only that, Radio Ping Pong has returned!

Good to hear you in better voice, sounding stronger and healthier than for some time. Perhaps you need to be more circumspect about which countries you visit, avoiding those with the dodgiest viruses.

I do check World Service when I remember. Listen Again is a brilliant institution.

I agree, Son of Dave is/are very tasty and deserve greater acclaim.

On another tack... one evening back in 1974 I borrowed a pair of your headphones, with assistance from a guitarist by the name of Adrian Putty Pietryga. These aided the live recording of a band that he played in, called Ocean, at Clapham hostelry The Two Brewers. Not my finest recording moment, but it does evoke the spirit of the time and the band, rather better than attempts made at Pathway or a huge complex at Wembley.

Should this be of interest, I'll send you a CD; let me know your postal address. I've at last managed to extract the audio from an old quarter-track, and cleaned it up digitally.

Please feel free to say no... I realise that you have a lot of records to be getting on with.

best wishes

Martin

Last edited by Charlie on Fri May 09, 2008 9:59 am, edited 2 times in total.

From Wikipedia, an update on Stonewall Jackson:In 2006, Jackson sued the Grand Ole Opry for $10 million, claiming age discrimination. As a member of the Opry for over fifty years, Jackson believed that management was sidelining him in favor of younger artists. In his court filing, Jackson claimed that Grand Ole Opry general manager Pete Fisher stated that he didn't "want any gray hairs on that stage or in the audience, and before I'm done there won't be any." Fisher is also alleged to have told Jackson that he was "too old and too country."

Thanks for a really enjoyable show Charlie. I'm glad you included Gert Vlok Nel, who is a South African poet who writes in Afrikaans. There's a lot of good Afrikaans songwriting and music coming out of South Africa at the moment. "Beautiful in Beaufort West" is a touching song of lost love. Beaufort West is farming town in the Great Karoo (in the Western Cape). Here are the lyrics in Afrikaans and English. if it reads strangely it's because I've kept the original sentence structure.

And you were beautiful in Beaufort West
And I was so scared and frighteningly in love with you
And you had on gravestones and on trains
And on Ford Fairlaine back seats been free
And now you and your man are both computer analysts
And last winter you tried to slit your wrists
And now you canâ€™t sleep any more
Not laugh any more
Not do anything for yourself any more
Never ever again kiss me

And beautiful beautiful beautiful were your words also
While you smoke menthol cigarettes
And say those sweet sweet things to me
While you sweet sweet lay in my arms
And the precide words have I precisely forgotten
I remember only the smoke and the sweat in Beaufort West
And your naked body under a cool summer cotton dress
No more sleep, no more laugh
No more do anything together
Never ever again kiss together

And this perhaps like a story out of the Huisgenoot
But one evening youâ€™d suddenly pushed me away
And looked at your face in the rear view mirror
And said â€œperhaps I should look happierâ€